So our scripture reading tonight is from the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, verses 1-16.
And this is the word of the Lord.
After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He himself was about to go.
And He said to them,
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
Go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.
Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace be to this house.
And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him.
But if not, it will return to you.
And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide.
For the laborer deserves his wages.
Do not go from house to house.
Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you.
Heal the sick in it and say to them,
The kingdom of God has come near to you.
But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you,
go into its streets and say,
Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet,
we wipe off against you.
Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.
I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
Woe to you, Chorazin!
Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?
You shall be brought down to Hades.
The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me.
And the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.
This is God's holy word.
So last week, David started us on a new series on discipleship.
And we're in Luke, chapters 9 to 12.
And in Luke, chapters 9, Jesus changes.
Luke changes his tone, his direction.
And he starts talking about Jesus making his way towards Jerusalem.
It's kind of like a travelogue of Jesus' journey.
And along the way, Jesus teaches what it means to be a disciple.
So what is a disciple?
Well, we can think about a disciple as being a follower, somebody who follows after Jesus.
When Jesus was alive, when Jesus walked the earth, people did literally drop the tools that they were working with and followed after him.
They walked after him.
We can also think about a disciple as a learner.
So somebody who, in Jesus' day, wanted to learn from a great teacher would come and sit at their feet and would absorb their teaching, would listen, would try to emulate their life, trying to live their life the way that they did.
And today, as disciples, we metaphorically sit at Jesus' feet.
Through the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word, we sit at Jesus' feet and we learn from him.
Not in a physical way, but in no less real way.
Well, in the passage that we read today, we're going to see that to be a disciple also means to be a messenger.
So Corey just read Jesus appointing 72 disciples.
Others, they're called here, they're disciples.
And he sends them out before him.
He calls them in and he sends them out.
Tonight, I'd like to look through these 16 verses in three kind of parts, these sections.
So first of all, the way that Jesus sends them.
And then the message that he wants them to deliver.
And then just how serious, how important it is that they go.
So we can call it the sending, the saying, the seriousness, maybe.
Okay, so first off, the sending.
In the free church, we have a labor crisis.
There are so many vacant congregations all over the country.
And we need ministers to fill those pulpits.
That's maybe why certain people have been accepted for candidacy in the free church.
Is my mic on?
Yeah, that's better.
And it's not just those empty pulpits that we have to fill,
but the free church as a denomination wants to plant another 30 churches by 2030.
So we need guys to lead those works as well.
And then at the other end, there's lots of guys who are ministers in the free church
who are reaching retirement age.
So we need a conveyor belt of ministers to come in and replace those people.
And when we talk about the need for ministers,
we talk about it a lot at seminary.
We talk about it in churches.
One of the verses that we go to is verse 2 here.
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
And therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest.
So Jesus knows our needs, and he knows that we need ministers,
and he gives us a solution.
What we're supposed to do, we're supposed to pray.
We're to pray for that.
So I guess the first question I want to ask tonight is,
are you praying for more gospel workers,
for more ministers to fill these pulpits that are vacant all over the country?
How fervently are we praying?
Do we pray when we think about it?
Or is it something that we're constantly thinking of?
Because there's so many people in congregations all over Scotland
that don't have people opening the Bible for them on a weekly basis,
and not pasting congregations.
Those are difficult situations to be in.
But secondly, if we were to think about this passage in isolation,
not to think about what came before it or what comes after it,
we could think, we could be mistaken for thinking
that this passage is about the professionals.
God, please give us more full-time gospel workers.
And that is a good prayer to pray.
But here's the thing.
Right before this chapter, the start of chapter 9,
Jesus takes his 12 disciples, his closest confidants,
the guys that he's been with the most,
and he sends them out.
And then when he sends these 72 now,
the words that he uses to send them,
and what he tells them to do is incredibly similar
in language to what he says to the 12.
Our passage here doesn't say disciples.
It says 72 others.
But at one point in Jesus' life,
his disciples and his family had thought that he had lost it.
And they went out to find him and to take him back
and to save him from harm.
And they couldn't get near him because the house was so full.
And they gave message and said,
we need to speak to Jesus.
And they said to Jesus,
your disciples and your family are here.
And he pointed to the people that are around him.
And he said, these are my disciples.
This is my family.
So the role of disciple is not for a full-time employed person.
This is not a passage just about ministers.
This is a passage about anyone who listens and obeys to Jesus.
Because anyone who listens and obeys to Jesus is a disciple.
And part of being a disciple is being a messenger.
There's a big harvest that needs to be brought in.
Jesus is people out there who are to be brought into his kingdom.
And you're the one who's to go and tell them.
So Jesus sends out 72.
Often in the Bible,
we saw this morning,
Corey was talking about numbers are significant.
And I think this 72 is significant here as well.
And I think it relates to the book of Genesis.
So after the flood,
and of course the world was destroyed
because of his wickedness,
God saved Noah and his family.
And in Genesis chapter 10,
we have the nations of the world
that come from Noah's legacy,
from his lineage.
And they go out and they fill the earth.
And in the Greek version of the Old Testament,
which was really in common use when the letter of the gospel of Luke was written,
there's 72 nations.
So I think what we're saying here is the breaking news that Jesus has come,
that the kingdom of God is breaking in,
and we're being sent out into the world,
the whole world,
all the nations,
to tell them.
72 people,
72 messengers representing 72 nations.
but this is not
just merely a sending out.
It's sending out with a message
to go to all the nations of the world
and to bring those nations,
God's people in those nations,
back to him.
Not the same as before,
but as a new kind of kingdom people
under the kingship of Jesus.
This is the start,
if you think about it like that,
of a global mission trip.
And maybe when I say global mission trip,
you think of
fundraising
and getting on a plane
and going to Peru
or to Africa.
And those are great things to do
and important things to do.
But we can't all go in for a mission.
I don't think we're all supposed to.
And Paul helps us see that, I think.
He helps us to see that
to be on mission,
we don't have to raise funds
or get on a plane.
In fact, in Ephesians 2,
Paul helps us understand
that mission might be right
on your doorstep.
Because in verses 8, it says,
for by grace you've been saved
through faith.
And this is not your own doing,
it's the gift of God.
Not a result of works
so that no one may boast.
But then in verse 10, he says,
for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ for good works,
which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them.
So if you're a disciple,
you've been saved from something,
from sin and from death,
but you've also been saved to something,
to good works
that God has prepared for you.
God has made you new in Christ
to do the very specific work
that was prepared just for you to do.
If you think about it this way,
there's people in Edinburgh
whose names are on Jesus' list of disciples,
disciples,
and he's chosen me,
and he's chosen you
to go and tell them.
He's made you free in Christ,
born again,
and so you're truly free
to go into the city
and to love people,
you tell them
the thing that they need
to know the very most.
So we see in verse 1
that Jesus sent his disciples
to every place
where he himself is about to go,
and I think for us
that means every place,
everywhere,
everywhere we go.
Jesus says,
in your classroom,
in your office,
I need somebody right there
in Edinburgh,
just now,
wherever you're employed,
wherever you're studying,
wherever you're working,
I need somebody there
to go and tell them
about my peace,
to tell them about my kingdom.
And Jesus is telling these 72,
get out,
go,
don't hang a bahu.
And he's saying
the same thing to us.
I wonder
how that makes you feel,
because it can be quite
intimidating to think
about going out into the city,
even if it's people
you know really well,
and telling them
that Jesus has come
to save them
from their sins.
Maybe you're a little bit nervous.
Well,
when we read on,
you might become
a big bit nervous,
because in verse 4,
Jesus tells us 72
that he's sending them out
to be like lambs
among wolves.
Go and tell people
about my kingdom.
Oh, and by the way,
it's not going to be easy.
If you've gone out
yourself,
and you've shared
about Jesus,
you know that it's not easy.
You know that you will
meet opposition.
Maybe you've invited
people to church,
and they've just kind of
quietly listened to you,
and then ignored you.
And that can be hard to take.
Maybe it's awkward now
with those people.
Maybe they live next door,
or across the road.
Or maybe you've spoken
about Jesus to somebody
in work,
and they've just looked
at you like you're naive,
or like you're tied
to some silly superstition
that everybody else
has moved beyond.
And this can be
embarrassing for us.
It's hard to share
their faith.
But Jesus doesn't
ever promise us
that it's going to be
easy to be a disciple.
In fact,
the New Testament
is packed full of passages
that tell us exactly
the opposite.
It tells us
how hard it's going to be.
But the interesting thing
about lambs and wolves
is that even although
it's hard,
we can't let
the hardness
of sharing
the gospel
make us hardened.
It can't harden
our hearts.
We're to be lambs.
You can never argue
somebody into
accepting Jesus.
You can't fight anyone
into turning away
from their sin.
You can't trick anybody
into God's kingdom.
We're not naive.
We're not to be naive,
put ourselves
in dangerous situations,
but we're to tell
people
about Jesus
as though we were lambs,
gently leading them
to the shepherd.
Look,
if you find this daunting,
and it is daunting,
look at,
with me,
verse 16.
It says,
the one,
this is Jesus talking,
he says,
the one who hears you
hears me,
and the one who rejects you
rejects me,
and the one who rejects me
rejects him
who sent me.
Do you see what Jesus
is saying here?
This is extraordinary.
He's saying,
me and you,
we're in this together.
Don't be anxious
about having the right words,
just point them to me.
Don't be anxious
about converting anybody.
It's the power of the Spirit
that's going to do that.
Don't be anxious
about being rejected.
Look how they rejected me.
Just go.
So,
Jesus tells
the 72 to go,
and to go with urgency.
And he also tells them
the message
that they're there
to deliver,
the saying.
He says to them,
don't take any money with you,
don't take your money bag,
don't take a knapsack,
don't take extra shoes,
travel lightly,
greet no one on the road,
move swiftly,
and rely
on the new disciples
that you meet
to provide your food for you.
He says,
don't go from house to house
having a good time
enjoying yourself.
He's talking about
the urgency
and the importance
of what it is
that you're to do.
This isn't a holiday,
this is a mission trip.
And he tells them
the message
they're to deliver.
So,
in verse 5,
he says,
whatever house you enter,
first say,
peace be
on this house.
And if a son of peace
is there,
your peace
will rest upon him.
But if not,
it will return to you.
This is going
house to house
is reminiscent
to me
of the Passover.
So,
in the Old Testament,
ancient Israel,
they put blood
on the doorposts
and the lintel
of their houses
so that when
the destroyer
would come,
he would pass
over those houses
and they would
have peace.
And here,
when the disciples,
the 72,
go door to door
meeting people,
they say,
peace to you.
And if they receive
that peace,
then the house
will share peace.
But if not,
if they don't
recognize this peace,
they don't want
to know
about Jesus'
kingdom
that's coming,
then the house
is not going
to have peace
because real peace
can only be found
in following
after Jesus.
Jesus also tells
the 72
to perform healings.
So,
this is
physical healing
making people better.
But even
this physical healing
are signs
that Jesus'
kingdom
is breaking
into the world.
The brokenness
that's in the world
is beginning
to be restored.
God's kingdom
is coming near
to them.
It's so tempting
for us,
I think,
to default
to the idea
that people
need good advice.
When we see
people struggling,
with people
having a hard time,
we think,
I can help them.
I know what
they need to do.
They need to find
a new job.
I know what
they need to do.
They need to stop
doing that thing
that I know
is bad for them.
And maybe those
things are true.
Sometimes those
things are good
and helpful.
But we shouldn't
confuse the idea
that people
need good advice
with the truth
that people
need to know
the good news.
They need to know
that peace
is available
through Jesus.
In Luke 4,
Jesus tells us
that that's why
he's come.
He's come
to preach
the kingdom.
And then in Luke 19,
verse 11,
says to the people,
they supposed
that the kingdom
was going to appear
immediately.
So the 72
have been sent out
and they're going
door to door
and they're telling
people about Jesus'
peace and they're
saying the kingdom
of God is drawn near.
And the people
are expecting
a big military
or political turnover
and everything
to change
dramatically overnight.
But that's not
what Luke records
for us.
That's not what
happened.
For Luke,
the kingdom of God
is an end time
reality,
something that's
going to happen
one day
at the end
on Christ's return,
but it's broken
into the world
now in his day
when Jesus
came into the world.
It's broken in,
but it's still waiting
for its final
consummation.
This is the
already,
but not yet.
The kingdom
is drawn near,
but it's not
yet fulfilled
in its full state.
But while the
kingdom's come,
hasn't come
in its full form
yet,
God's promise,
his promised reign
is not just
a future thing.
It's begun
now
in Jesus
and it demands
a response.
There's two
options.
Receive it
and have peace
or reject it
and don't.
Jesus tells them,
shake off the dust
of your feet.
When you share
the news of the peace
of the coming kingdom
with these people
and they reject you,
shake off the dust
of your feet.
And this is a symbol,
this is an outward sign
for the people
of the New Testament
that when they went
outside the Holy Land,
the land that God
had given them,
they were to come back
and that land
was precious
and good
and set apart
for them
but to shake off
anything that doesn't
belong to it.
There's an outward sign
that the kingdom
has come near
and these people
who are rejecting
their message
are not going
to be welcomed in.
Okay,
finally,
the seriousness.
So you notice
in verse 1
that the disciples
are sent out
two by two.
There's 72 of them
and they're sent out
in twos.
And there's
shared power,
there's power
in shared ministry
and the fact
that we can support
one another,
we can pray
for one another,
we can provide
provisions for one another,
there's safety
in numbers,
these are all good things.
But I think
that being sent
in twos also
is to remind us
of another Old Testament
book,
this time the book
of Deuteronomy
because in Deuteronomy
19.15
it tells us
that if somebody's
convicted of breaking
the law,
they can only be charged
on the testimony
of two witnesses.
So you need two people
to witness a crime
in order
to make a charge.
And that legal language
is really fitting
because of what Jesus
is just about to say
when he comes to
the second half
of our passage.
Because he's going
to pivot from telling us
to go and share
the message,
that true peace
is available
through faith in him,
to laying out
the consequences
for the people
who refuse
to believe the message.
I had a friend
who studied theology
at university
and she used to tell me
that the God
of the Old Testament
and the God
of the New Testament
are really different gods
because the God
of the Old Testament
is angry and violent
and the God
of the Good Testament
is just loving
and kind.
But here,
Jesus literally
becomes a fire
and brimstone preacher
because the consequences
of not receiving
God's peace,
not entertaining
Jesus' kingdom
are catastrophic.
Jesus says
it will be more bearable
for Sodom,
which was wiped
off the map
with fire
and sulfur
from heaven.
that it will be
for the day
of judgment
for the people
who don't turn
to Jesus.
Last week,
Jesus,
last week,
David,
that's a Freudian slip,
preached on chapter 9
and James and John,
when people rejected Jesus,
James and John,
his disciples said,
well,
can we call down fire
from heaven
and just blast them?
And Jesus says,
no,
of course not.
He rebukes them
because this isn't
the time for judgment.
Jesus is saying,
this is a time
for salvation.
But the time
of judgment
is coming.
Jesus has come
and he's inaugurated
the kingdom.
He's come as a savior
and he is our savior.
But Jesus is going
to return in power
and in glory
and he's going
to judge the whole world.
And for those
outside of Jesus' kingdom,
he'll be more bearable
to be rained on
with fire and sulfur
than to face God's wrath.
Jesus said,
if Tyre and Sidon
had seen this,
they would have
repented of their sins.
Those were port cities,
gateways to the Gentiles.
But these towns,
these blessed towns
that have seen Jesus
perform miracles in them,
they've remained
hard-heartened.
These amazing works
of healing,
casting out evil,
they've been done
in places like
Horizon and Capernaum.
They're indicators
of what the fully
inaugurated kingdom
is going to be like.
No pain,
no illness,
no evil,
only good,
only peace.
Only peace with Jesus.
But confronting people
about the consequences
of their decision
not to come to Jesus
is difficult.
It's terrifying
in some ways.
We're often told
that it's okay
to be a believer,
it's okay to be a Christian,
it's okay to do
whatever you want
with your life,
but keep it to yourself.
As long as you're not
going out and trying
to convince people
that what they're doing
is wrong,
then okay,
knock yourself out,
do whatever you want
on a Sunday.
But to not share
the gospel with people
is not an option
for disciples.
I don't really know
much about the
magician's pen and teller,
but I do know
that Penn
is an atheist
and he was interviewed
one time
and he said,
he was asked
about Christians
sharing their faith
and he said,
if you believe
that there's a heaven
and a hell
and you think
it's not worth
telling somebody
about it,
how much do you
have to hate him
not to tell?
Even famous atheists
see that the truth
of Jesus
transforms everything.
If Jesus really is
who he says he is,
then not telling people
about him,
not telling people
about the situation
they found themselves in
when they're separated
from him
is wicked.
It's the most unloving
thing you could possibly
do to keep it
to yourself.
We have to be
constantly on mission,
constantly sharing
the gospel,
not just in one
and off occasions
over and over again
because people
who don't know
the truth
are facing
eternal separation
from God.
This is urgent.
It makes me think
about
an American soldier
called Desmond Doss
and he fought
in World War II
during the Battle
of Okinawa
and he was classified
as a conscientious objector
because he wouldn't
carry a gun.
He wanted to
fight for God
and country
but he wouldn't
take another
human life
and so his fellow
soldiers didn't
like him much.
There was a battle
that wasn't going
well
and a number
of men had gone
up the ridge
and he was a medic
and you might think
that because he was
a medic
he probably had a
red cross on his
shoulder
he'd be safer
but actually
he says in his book
that he wrote later
he says that
they knew that
shooting medics
killing medics
destroyed the morale
of the whole platoon
and so
if you were a medic
if you weren't
fighting
you actually became
a more prized target
for the enemy soldiers.
In the Battle
of Hacksaw Ridge
the whole platoon
was told to retreat
to come back home
but Doss
refused to leave
and he went up
and down that ridge
over and over again
dragging injured men
from the battlefield.
Extraordinary bravery
because he knew
how dangerous it was.
He knew that he was
a prized target
for the enemy.
Every time he got
a man down safely
he didn't stop
but he prayed
and do you know
what his prayer was?
Not
God keep me safe
if I go again
or God
please let this man survive.
It was
please God
help me get one more.
Help me get one more.
There's men and women
all over Edinburgh tonight
facing
certain death
separation from God
forever.
Jesus is on a rescue mission.
He's saving people
from death
to life
and if you're
a believer tonight
he's commanding you
to enlist
in that journey
in that mission.
How would our lives
change?
How much would they
change at work
or in the park
with the kids
or at a restaurant
or in class
or wherever we are
if our prayer
for our own lives
would be
Lord one more
help me get your gospel
to one more person.
Not that we can save anybody
it's the Holy Spirit
that can change
people's hearts
but if we love
our neighbours
if we love
all the people
round about us
we've got
a responsibility
to tell them
about the danger
that they're in.
If you're
not a Christian tonight
if you're here
and you're wrestling
with the claims
that the Bible makes
and you're thinking
that I've only been
speaking to disciples
to believers
tonight
well
you can know
right now
that the peace
of Jesus
is on offer
to you
right now.
Will you follow him?
Will you learn
from him?
Will you be his disciple?
Jesus has gone
to extraordinary lengths
to give us
his peace.
Jesus.
He wasn't just
a great teacher.
He wasn't just
a great example.
We were to be like
lambs among wolves
but Jesus was
the ultimate lamb.
He was the sacrificial lamb
who went willingly
to give his life
to satisfy
the consequences
of our sin.
He went up the ridge
up the hill
to save his people
not carrying
a medical pack
but carrying a cross
walking straight
into
the firing zone.
He paid the price
for our sin.
He gave his life
so that we can
have new life
in him.
That's the message
that we have to share.
Jesus came to suffer
and to die
but he rose again
and he's reigning
now in heaven.
He's coming back
and he's going
to bring
all his people
from his harvest
from all across
the world
who will accept
his peace.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Lord God,
we thank you
for your word.
We ask that you
would help us
to lay it to heart.
Lord,
we feel challenged
when we think
about going out
into the world
and sharing
the news that Jesus
has come,
what it means.
We feel challenged
by different groups
of people in our lives
who we feel
that we can't
share the gospel with.
But Lord,
help us
to be bold,
help us
to be clear.
And Lord,
we ask that you
would give us
opportunities
to proclaim the gospel
in every aspect
of our lives,
in school,
in work,
in college,
in uni,
wherever we are.
Lord,
we pray that you
would use us
to your glory.
We ask all these
things in Jesus' name.
Amen.